Portraits from the North East still up and running

After a successful month at the Blyth Arts and Leisure Centre and then a further month at Sunderland’s Museum, Arts and Winter Garden we have arrived at our fifth venue. On Friday, 15th January last Brian Blake and I, with the able assistance of Kate from the Museum and George (her boss), assembled the Portraits from the North East’s exhibition of 100 notable people in the entrance hall of THE Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle. It should be there until Sunday 31st January. Not that this is the final venue, far from it! We have a promise of Ushaw College (Durham University) for later in the year and are still hoping for a venue in Gateshead.

Bowes Museum is a magnificent building and every element, from the façade to the monumental staircase to the various displays, marks it out as one of the great museums of the country and one of the many jewels in the crown of the North East, (www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk)

Our exhibition is to the left as you enter the building. To gauge what is looks like and how it arranged please see the illustrations below.

For all those concerned with the project, no matter how you were involved, a big “thumbs-up” from the man who helped put together the highly successful YSL exhibition and many others. Oh, by the way, we did float the idea that we could well have other exhibitions of a similar high quality in the not too distant future and they, too, might need a venue. That suggestion was positively received.

As for those exhibitions; we have the core of the Veterans’ of World War Two ready, having been displayed at St. Nicholas’ Cathedral in Newcastle. We are, however, continuing to photograph veterans to provide a more definitive collection.

Throughout 2016 we will be recording the activities of various crafts people who live and work in the North East. Already, we have nearly two dozen volunteers. More of these two projects in the weeks and months to come.